Reflection 4: Non-fiction and Balanced Reading Diet (Harvey Article and D&Z Chapter 4)

I loved getting lost in Ms. R's classroom library books.

My eighth grade teacher Ms. R used to keep a classroom library. Ms. R had this little black, rotating book shelf at the back of the classroom. I remember spending my free time looking through all the colorful trade books that filled the three sides of her little rotating book shelf. One book in particular caught my eye--Fat Chance, a book about a teenager with an eating disorder. Although it wasn't an Accelerated Reader (couldn't earn points for a class by reading it), I checked out the book anyway and finished reading it in one night. To this day, I still remember vividly the plot and the smell of the book (It was a minty, cakery smell! I swear!) as I spent my night flipping through it. It all came down to the fact that this was a subject that genuinely interested me and something I wanted to find out more about. As I was reading this week's reading assignments, I confess I started out the task with nothing less than pure dread. I mean, I much rather be watching my favorite TV show or reading cooking blogs than doing assigned reading. However, these readings by Harvey, Daniels and Zemelman turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable and even made me reminisce about my teenage years when reading helped me explore and escape.

The Harvey article proposes using compelling non-fiction to ignite learning curiosity in students and teach effective reading and writing. In chapter 4 of Subjects Matter: Every Teacher's Guide to Content-Area Reading, Daniels and Zemelman argue for incorporating a balanced reading diet (textbook and trade books, choice and assigned, fiction and non-fiction, classics and contemporary, difficult and easy, short and long, primary and secondary, multiple texts and single text) in developing readers into sophisticated and life-long readers/learners. Daniels and Zemelman also give tips for how to start and keep a classroom library to further surround students with balanced reading options.

What I love about this two reading assignments is that they both remind me how fun reading and learning can be! Harvey's paper reminds me that people are curious creatures who can become fascinated with topics that learning about them is not only fun, but natural! Non-fiction is indeed a bountiful source to intrigue genuine learning curiosity in people. Why make the students read a  textbook chapter about DNA when you have part of the biography from the scientists who discovered the double helix structure? The students can not only learn about the how (how they discovered the double helix structure), but also the why (why were they motivated) from the people that are passionate about their work and discovery. Also it's so true that we, as grown ups, tend to read more non-fiction than fiction! Thus, giving students more non-fiction and training them to write non-fiction are teaching practices that make practical sense. Chapter 4 in Daniels and Zemelman's book is my favorite reading piece from this class so far! This is simply because it reminds me how fun reading for pleasure can be. It reminds me of my high school days when I'd skip lunch to flip through the Psychology Today magazine in the library. It takes me back to my 8th grade teacher's little classroom library. And it reminds me that reading wasn't all dry growing up. Why should teachers suggest otherwise by giving out dry encyclopedia/textbook readings? I also loved the book suggestions at the end of this chapter. At multiple points during the reading, I simply wanted to stop reading this chapter already and find those books (no offense, Daniels and Zemelman)!

Both of these reading assignments were great in showing and reminding me that reading can be used in all content areas during teaching--even with math! Instead of the teacher doing the standard introducing the topic of the day, possible non-fiction reading (or even show a movie clip about the mathematician) can be assigned prior to teaching the topic to capture student interests. And chapter 4 in Daniels and Zemelman's book had an entire section about math books that can be of interest to everyone. Math teachers can definitely feature a few of those in their classroom library! Also, it doesn't have to be all math-related books/readings. Sometimes, we all need some easy and fun reads that grab our attention, relax our minds, and satisfy our burning curiosity about random facts of life. At the end, teachers of all subject areas want to not only teach their content area, but also to promote the development of life-long learners/readers.

Update (11/4/2013)
After I wrote the above reflection, I actually googled a coupled of stories mentioned in chapter 4 as they really caught my attention. And I managed to find "My Favorite Teacher" (a story about a serial killer teacher)! Really loved reading the story and I even shared it with two friends (one of them stopped halfway, the other really enjoyed it too!)! Click on the following link for an interesting read: "My Favorite Teacher" by Robert Kurson! I highly recommend it!

Reflection 3: More Reading Strategies and Textbook (D&Z Chapters 5-6)

In chapter 5 of Subjects Matter: Every Teacher's Guide to Content-Area Reading, Daniels and Zemelman give a list of before-, during- and after-reading strategies. What's great about before strategies is that they provide a great opportunity to assess students' prior knowledge on the subject. And the before-reading strategies such as the anticipation guide and dramatic role play can also serve as great "hooks" to capture student interests. I really like the probable passage example (types of numbers example) and appreciate the authors' attempt to incorporate all subject matters. As for the during-reading strategies, my favorite is the coding text strategy (writing down letters on the margin to express confusion, interest, connections, etc.). As you're reading, being able to quickly jot down letters at the margin doesn't interrupt the students' reading flow and keeps track of their understanding. I also like the sketching strategy because it allows the student to create something and use skills outside of the content area (drawing!). My only worry that some students might get too carried away with the drawing task and that it might distract them from understanding the text. As for after-reading strategies, most of the examples the authors gave are pretty traditional (exit/admit tickets, mapping, pair&share, and extended projects). An interesting strategy is the written conversation. I wonder if just changing the format of the discussion into note-passing will make the task more interesting? Another strategy that caught my eyes is the RAFT (role, audience, format, topic) one as it provides structure and challenges the students to do some higher ordered thinking.

Chapter 6 talks about making use of the your content textbook. It points out that the American education system believes in using giant textbooks and some teachers (for various reasons) feel like they need to assign readings for most/all of the text. As an immigrant from another country, I noticed that this is very true! Even elementary students are using those thick textbooks. I think the textbook development people probably designed it this way to make the most information available to teachers/students. However, this means that teachers will have to work to select parts of the text to focus and use (based on state exam coverage and content standards). As for math textbook reading, I noticed that during my secondary education career, most (if not all) teachers don't teach reading math textbooks. Instead, they seem to use math textbooks almost exclusively for the practice problems at the back of each section/chapter. As a student, I found high school math text to be pretty easy to read/understand. However, as I got into higher level math courses (calculus and beyond), the math textbooks became more and more concise (packed with information) and difficult to understand. As a result, I tend to rely more on teacher lectures than reading math textbooks. When I think about it, this puts a lot of responsibility on the math teachers! So I can definitely see that teaching students to read math textbooks and selecting good textbooks are ways to empower the students to become independent learners (not entirely dependent on the teacher).

Textbook Challenge

Web Resource Review 1: IXL Math

IXL Math is a web site that I often go to for additional math practices for algebra lessons. It is a web site that offers problems and games for pre-K and K-12 students (kindergarten, 1st to 8th grades, algebra and geometry) and tools (reports, resources, math skills identified with specific state standards) for teachers and parents. They offer memberships for a price to schools, teachers, students, and parents so they can have access to all the resources the site offers (roster and reports for teachers to manage the progress of their students, awards and interactive games for motivating students, and reports for parents to monitor the progress of the students).

The web site is maintained by IXL Learning, a company founded in 1998. The company also publishes Quia Books (interactive online textbook and workbook. IXL web site was created in 2007 and designed to provide practice products for K-12 math education. Teachers have access to reports and data analysis tools to gain insight into student performance. The product development team (content developers, product designers, software developers) is composed of employees hired by the company and their content is checked by math PhD’s and teachers/tutors.

I really like how they organized the site and how you can easily search for specific academic skills to practice on. The site also organizes the skills/problems by grade levels and subjects. The problems are multiple choice and the answers can been easily selected by clicking on the blank dot by the answer choices. When you click into the practice problems, it lists every grade level and subject’s standards. And when you put the mouse over a specific standard, an associated practice problem pops up. I really this design because the students and parents can quickly gain an idea of what the standards mean by looking at these example problems (without having to click into the specific links). This site is safe for school environment and shouldn’t require adult supervision for students to access. However, a big con of IXL Math is that it charges a membership fee if one wants complete access (teacher report tools, games, roster, state standards, and rewards). This hinders the accessibility of the web site quite a bit. The family rate is about $10 a month or $80 a year. For teachers, there’s a 30-day free trial and the rate is $199 per class.

Overall, I really like the web site’s collection of practice problems, how the problems are organized by specific skills, and how the site keeps track of the time and scores during practice to help motivate the students. I think this would be very helpful for students and teachers who are preparing for state-wide exams. This also provides a tool for teachers to expand their practice problem banks. On the other hand, the access to the complete tools (rewards, games, roster, and student analysis) can only be obtained after paying for a rather expensive subscription fee ($10 a month for families and $199 per class for teachers). With complete access to the web site’s tools, a teacher can assign practice problems for his/her students via the web site and use the analyzing tools to keep track of the students’ performances. And the number of games the web site has can also help motivate the students. Since I am teaching high school students, the fact that they only have algebra I and geometry now is not ideal. However, the promise of algebra II and trigonometry to come is very promising. And I really look forward to the site’s incorporating more advanced mathematics (even post-secondary level mathematics). The reason that I recommend using the site in a K-12 classroom with reservation is mainly due the price of the subscription. Without paying for a membership, a teacher can’t obtain to the tracking tool and can’t offer students motivational tools such as games and rewards.

Reflection 2: Teaching Text Structure

As a student, the type of expository reading I had most difficulty with has the "main idea structure." As I read a textbook section for the first time, I tend to lose track of the supporting arguments for the main idea and sometimes only selectively remember the arguments that stood out to me the most. Bakken and Whedon gave a couple of good, simple note-taking guides for the five main types of expository writing (main idea, list, order, compare/contrast, and classification). I think the fact that the proposed study strategy includes a note-taking guide is something that's going to help a lot of students (like me) better organize and remember what they read. Having to write something done while reading forces the reader to process what she just read and put it into her own words.

I also like that Bakken and Whedon suggested that instructors introduce doing these note-taking guides by discussing the purpose of it. Also the students will need some scaffolding if this is their first time reading expository text. So modeling, guided practice, and independent practice are essential components. Overall, I really liked the simple strategies and note-taking guides Bakken and Whedon gave. However, I remember the part I struggled the most during any standardized reading assessment involves higher ordered questions (predict, construct, consider what is implied). While Bakken and Whedon suggests a solid strategy for introducing expository reading, I wonder what could be used to perfect expository reading for readers as they become sufficient but not expert readers (something that promotes more higher ordered thinking).

Reflection 1: Scaffolding Reading, Word Gap, and Building Classroom Environment

When I was an ELL in grades 7-8, I didn't experience much (if any) scaffolding or differentiated instruction from my teachers. I think, back then, my school operated under the assumption that ELLs learn best by observing and remaining uninvolved in class until they demonstrate a desire to participate. As a result, I was left out of all of my classes for about a semester (but I learned a lot this way too!). Perhaps because of my experience as an ELL, I always find it refreshing to read articles like this that suggest teachers provide differentiated instruction such as the scaffolded reading experience to ELLs. The pre-teaching of key vocabulary (terms that are specific to each subject) is a great idea to help everyone in class. I think this is especially helpful to ELLs because it helps them establish confidence in their reading abilities as they see other native speaking students also struggle with confusion with vocabulary. As a math intern, I actually think the subject of mathematics lends itself well to teaching ELLs English! Math problems are often short and clear and ELLs can acquire many basic reading skills from just tackling math problems (that's actually how I learned English when I first came to America). As someone who has gone through the English language learning phase, this is a subject that's close to my heart and I'm really glad that education is moving toward a direction of differentiated instruction for all learners. Thus, my one piece of advice for teachers that have ELLs in their classrooms is to not be afraid of them and involve them in class in a non-stressful way (meaning don't make them read out loud in class if they're not comfortable doing that)!

The article on word gap as a result of different family environments paints a scary picture to how chance (which family you were born into) can play a great factor in your vocabulary and reading scores. I'm not too terribly shocked, to be honest. I figured experiences are a significant factor in people's learning (Piaget's theory on learning stressed experience and interacting with your environment). What I found interesting is the ratio of encouragements and discouragements and how it correlates with family socio-economical statues and eventually student's vocabulary and reading scores.

As education is moving towards a more hands-on and student-centered approach, I think establishing a good class environment is going to be a top priority! Students are expected to do more discovery-inquiry tasks in groups and you can't simply do well in this kind of environment without having a healthy classroom environment! As Maslow's hierarchy of needs tells us, we need to have our safety and esteem needs met first before we can strive for self-actualization. Students have to feel safe to learn, talk, ask questions, try, succeed, and fail in their classrooms. Chapter seven in Zemelman's book Subjects Matter contains some wonderful tips for teachers to help their students feel empowered inside the classrooms. I really like the part about that suggests giving students a sense of control inside the class and holding in-class conferences to get to know all the students (and set goals). What I consider to do with my honors geometry class next semester is to give them the option of arranging the test dates with me. I want my students to learn to negotiate with authority figures (in this case, me!) in an assertive way and I think tests are something teachers have a little flexibility over (it doesn't hurt that much to move a test one day back, but it can help the students tremendously!). As an intern, I'm beginning to see the difficulty of learning about all 80 students in your class in one semester! I think the one-on-one conference is a great way to get to know all the students and help them set goals!